This is reminiscent of the recent debacle in NYC with the NYU Child Study
Center which ran ads about how children were kidnapped and ransomed by diagnosed
medical conditions. Many pople were pretty outraged. This is a relatively
civil response.
Eileen
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Rescue Me: The NYU Child Study Center’s Ransom Notes Ad Campaign
by Kristina Chew, PhD on December 11th, 2007
Rescue me: That is the essence of the message of the “_Ransom Notes_
(http://www.autismvox.com/kidnapped-by-autism-making-noise-about-ransom-notes/) ” “
_public awareness campaign_
(http://www.aboutourkids.org/about_us/public_awareness) ” that the _New York University Child Study Center_
(http://www.aboutourkids.org/) is launching. I’ve noted the use of _shocking and alarmist
language_
(http://www.autismvox.com/kidnapped-by-autism-making-noise-about-ransom-notes/) in the ads, which feature fictional “ransom notes,” with the captors
being “untreated psychiatric disorders,” including autism, Asperger Syndrome,
bulimia, _depression_
(http://www.autismvox.com/rescue-me-the-nyu-child-study-centers-ransom-notes-ad-campaign/#) , ADHD, and obsessive-compulsive
disorder. The image of these conditions as kidnappers, abductors, criminals—_normal
child snatchers_
(http://www.autismvox.com/the-invasion-of-the-normal-child-snatchers/) —who have gotten hold of our children is troubling and, further,
harmful and offensive—and many autistic self-advocates and parents have been
blogging about why:
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
My concern about the NYU Center’s Ransom Notes campaign is twofold. First,
with its imagery of a child “captured” by some devious creature (autism,
ADHD, etc.), the campaign revives outmoded ideas about these sorts of conditions.
The “Ransom Note” campaign draws in part on the _myth of the changeling_
(http://www.autismvox.com/the-changling-and-the-pied-piper-fairy-tales-and-science
-in-strange-son/) , in which a human child was said to have been snatched
from its _cradle_
(http://www.autismvox.com/rescue-me-the-nyu-child-study-centers-ransom-notes-ad-campaign/#) by trolls and replaced with an ugly, deformed,
creature. This troll-child, the changeling, is a _disabled child_
(http://www.autismvox.com/rescue-me-the-nyu-child-study-centers-ransom-notes-ad-campaign
/#) . While I don’t think that parents today always knowingly invoke this
folk story when they refer to their autistic child as once normal and now “lost”
; references to autistic children as an “empty shell” do suggest this
notion of the changeling, of a child stolen away and a deformed being left in her
or his place.
Second, while there is no question that the NYU Center seeks to help and
support children with issues that more than need addressing, and to assist their
families, I as a parent of an autistic child, a disability rights advocate,
and an educator and academic, am greatly concerned about the misconceptions,
misunderstanding, and limited perspective that the “Ransom Notes” campaign
promotes. The notion that a child’s true and actual, normal self has been
stolen away by some disorder (autism) is harmful to how other people perceive and
treat my autistic son. The image of autism promoted by the “Ransom Notes”
campaign is purely negative and can only result in people seeing autism in
general and my autistic son in particular in a highly negative light.
This is a “public awareness” campaign that makes the public aware only of
one very dark aspect of being an autistic person and of raising an autistic
child. Spend a day in our household and, while you will witness more than a few
moments of anxiety, fretfulness, and a bit of noise, I hope you might most
of all sense my son’s limitless desire to do his best, to struggle through his
worries, and to smile and speak in half-echoed snatches of phrases—-his
patience and his constant efforts to try and try harder. I hope you might most of
all sense what Jim and I feel always for Charlie and our small family,
_unconditional love_
(http://www.autismvox.com/rescue-me-the-nyu-child-study-centers-ransom-notes-ad-campaign/#) , faith in each other, and effervescent hope.
It is not a household that Charlie, or Jim or I, feel at all in need of
being rescued from.
____________________________________
This is the full text of a letter by Ari Ne’eman, President of the _Autistic
Self-Advocacy Network_
(http://www.autisticadvocacy.org/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=21) . If you would like to add your name to the letter,
please send an email to Ari Ne’eman.
To the NYU Child Study Center and the supporters of the “Ransom Notes”
advertising campaign:
We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to you regarding your new ad
campaign for the NYU Child Study Center: “Ransom Notes”. Our organizations
represent people with a wide range of disabilities, including those portrayed
in your campaign, as well as family members, professionals and others whose
lives are affected by _disabilities_
(http://www.autismvox.com/rescue-me-the-nyu-child-study-centers-ransom-notes-ad-campaign/#) . As people who live and
work with disability, we cannot help but be concerned by the way your campaign
depicts individuals with disabilities. By choosing to portray people on the
autism spectrum as well as those living with OCD, ADHD and other disabilities
as kidnapped or possessed children, you have inadvertently reinforced many of
the worst stereotypes that have prevented children and adults with
disabilities from gaining inclusion, equality and full access to the services and
supports they require.
While the “Ransom Notes” campaign was no doubt a well-intentioned effort to
increase awareness and thus support for the disabilities it describes, the
means through which it attempts this have the opposite effect. When a child
with ADHD is described as “a detriment to himself and those around him,” it
hurts the efforts of individuals, parents and families to ensure inclusion of
students with learning disabilities in the same classrooms as their peers.
When individuals with diagnoses of autism and Asperger’s Syndrome are told that
their capacities for social interaction and independent living are completely
destroyed, it deeply offends the many adults of these neurologies who have
succeeded in living independent lives, forming social relationships and
achieving personal, financial and social success. While it is true that there are
many difficulties associated with the disabilities you describe, many
individuals with those diagnostic categories do succeed – not necessarily by becoming
indistinguishable from their non-disabled peers, but by finding ways to
maximize their unique abilities and potential on their own terms.
It is important to point out that while the Center has promoted this
campaign under the tag line, “Don’t let a psychiatric disorder take your child,”
several of the disabilities described by the campaign are neurological rather
than psychiatric. The implication that autism and Asperger’s Syndrome are
psychiatric conditions rather than neurological ones, combined with the implicit
threat that the kidnapping note sends to parents (“Ignore this and your kid
will pay”), calls to mind the damaging “refrigerator mother” theory
popularized by Dr. Bruno Bettelheim over thirty-five years ago. The stigma and
misinformation that resulted from Dr. Bettelheim’s mistaken assertion that bad
mothers were the cause of autism drove parents away from seeking diagnostic
services and appropriate educational interventions for their children. Like
Bettelheim, the “Ransom Notes” campaign places a stigma on both parents and
children, thus discouraging them from pursuing a diagnosis that might have been
helpful in gaining access to the appropriate services, supports and educational
tools. The _autism spectrum_
(http://www.autismvox.com/rescue-me-the-nyu-child-study-centers-ransom-notes-ad-campaign/#) should be recognized for what it
is: a lifelong neurological condition – not a kidnapper that steals children
in the dead of the night.
Furthermore, the use of kidnapping as an analogy for any of the disabilities
depicted in the campaign is highly inappropriate, regardless of the origin
of the conditions involved. It is true that diagnoses of ADHD, autism, Asperger
’s Syndrome and OCD often accompany great hardships for families. It is true
that depression and bulimia are terrible disorders that require treatment.
Yet, the way you choose to convey those messages is inappropriate and
counterproductive. Individuals with disabilities are not replacements for normal
children that are stolen away by the disability in question. They are whole
people, deserving of the same rights, respect and dignity afforded their peers.
Too often, the idea that children with disabilities are less than human lies at
the heart of horrific crimes committed against them. The tragic instances of
murder and infanticide against people on the autism spectrum and with other
developmental disabilities are linked with the perception that these people
are less than human. We – the adults, families, professionals and others
affected by these conditions - assert that nothing could be further from the
truth.
We are also concerned that the negative stereotypes the “Ransom Notes”
campaign depicts could make it harder for the many people with disabilities and
their family members who are working to ensure that students with disabilities
have the right to be included in their home schools while still receiving
all necessary services. Federal law mandates that students with disabilities
have the right to a “free and appropriate public education” in the “least
restrictive environment”. Your advertising campaign claims that children with
disabilities could be a detriment to those around them and as a result hurts the
efforts of parents working to secure the opportunity for their children to
be included with their peers.
While we recognize and applaud the good intentions intended by this effort,
we must urge you to withdraw this campaign immediately, as it threatens to
harm the very people whom it seeks to benefit: people with disabilities, their
families and their supporters. In the press release announcing this campaign,
the Center gave as one of its goals “eliminating the stigma of being or
having a child with a psychiatric disorder”. While we may disagree with the Center
’s choice of labels, we are in full agreement with the goal of eliminating
stigma against people with disabilities and their families. This campaign
serves to increase that stigma rather than lessen it. We hope that you will heed
our concerns and those of many other people with disabilities, family
members, professionals and countless others and end the “Ransom Notes” advertising
campaign.
Please do not to hesitate to contact any of the organizations listed as
signatories to this letter in order to better solicit the opinions of the
disability community prior to your next advertising campaign. We would be more than
glad to help the Center to develop better strategies to achieve its excellent
goals. The NYU Child Study Center has the potential to do enormous good for
children and families affected by disability. By showing that the Center
respects the views of people with disabilities, families and professionals, you
can make that aspiration a reality.
Sincerely,
Ari Ne’eman
Founding President
The _Autistic Self Advocacy Network_ (http://www.autisticadvocacy.org/)
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